Sudan threatens to ‘strike back’ at Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Sudanese government minister threatened to strike Israel over the bombing of a weapons factory in Khartoum.

Sudan "reserves the right to strike back at Israel," Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman said Wednesday, hours after the attack on the arms factory that left two dead.

Osman told reporters that the four military planes that attacked the plant belonged to Israel and were seen entering the country’s airspace from the east. He said that the factory made "traditional weapons."

Israeli officials on Wednesday and Thursday would neither confirm nor deny involvement in the attack.

Sudan on Wednesday asked the Security Council to condemn Israel.

"We reject such aggression and expect your esteemed council to condemn this attack because it is a blatant violation of the concept of peace and security," Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, the Sudanese envoy to the U.N., reportedly said.

Sudan accused Israel of attacking a weapons convoy traveling from Sudan to the Gaza Strip last December and of a similar attack in 2009, as well as targeting a car carrying a high-ranking Hamas official last spring and other targeted attacks on vehicles.

Sudan reportedly is a transit spot for weapons smuggling, particularly to Gaza through Egypt, and a center for al-Qaida terrorists.